I have a query from an excellent colleague -- if you have ideas, could
you please contact Elizabeth Watts-Warren at cmswatts@uga.cc.uga.edu?
Thanks very much!
Joya Misra
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
I wonder if you could give me some information (or direct me to some relevant
scholarship) on world systems theory. Specifically, in Wilma Dunaway's
presentation, she argued that world systems theory posits that as capitalism
incorporates "new zones", it sets into motion two antithetical "labor
recruitment" mechanisms: (1) a proletarianization of males into laborers
(and associated surplus production), and (2) a concentration of women's
labor into arenas that are never fully integrated into the male-dominated
economy. This, of course, is interesting and I guess all world systems theoris
ts know this. But does any world systems theorist take this insight further an
d relate this to the production of a criminal class. That is, it seems that
as labor recruitment fails, lumpen proletarianization occurs (?) out of which
criminals are produced. Crimininalization and containment (or what I call
devalued labor) are the results of failed labor recruitment tactics and is,
therefore, inherent in capitalist incorporation. Steven Spitzer looks at
the functions of the production of criminals in relation to the economy but
doesn't really draw this connection (ie. production of criminals is a function
of failed incorportation mechanisms). Does any system's theorist do this
cleanly?
Any insight would be helpful.
Elizabeth